The Observer, April 18, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 25
Law school rankings take a tumble
In the U.S. News & World Report graduate school rankings published April 7, Case received a few unpleasant surprises. Its programs in law, engineering, and medicine all suffered drops from last year's numbers in the nationally recognized rankings.
The medical school dropped from No. 21 to 23, although the overall overall score remained the same at 58. Northwestern University and Emory University passed Case in the rankings to claim the No. 20 spot.
The engineering school lost four points in its overall score, as well as ranking, moving from No. 45 to 49. This decrease is attributable to a lower median GRE math score for entering students, a smaller percentage of faculty with membership in the National Academy of Engineering, and fewer Ph.D.s granted for the class of 2007.
The law school was subjected to the greatest drop in ranking, from No. 53 to 63, though its overall score had dropped by only one point, to 47. Although the score difference is small, Case School of Law dean Gary Simson sees a need for improvement. "If we had stayed at the same aggregate score, we would have dropped seven places," said Simson.
U.S. News calculates rankings based on several different criteria. For law schools, these include median LSAT scores and GPAs, percentage employment of graduates both at graduation and nine months later, bar passage rate in the state where most graduates take the bar, and assessments by lawyers, judges, and peer institutions.
Peer assessments count for 25 percent of the overall score and are filled out by four faculty at each school: the dean, the associate dean for academic affairs, the head of faculty appointments, and the most recently tenured faculty member.
They are asked to rank each other school on a scale from 1-5 and are given no information about the school except for its name, according to Simson. There is also a box to check for "don't know" if the faculty member does not feel comfortable ranking the school. "Most people should check off 'don't know' 90 percent of the time," said Simson. "They don't have first-hand information about the schools. They could go look it up, but they have 200 schools to rank."
Other aspects of the score calculation are equally flawed, according to Simson. Ten percent is based on GPA, but the rankings do not take into account the majors or undergraduate institutions of entering students. For example, Simson said, "There is no distinction between what might be considered a mediocre school and Princeton."
In response to the rankings drop, Simson plans to work on several changes to the law school program that may help improve the school's overall score. The biggest change will be the reduction of future incoming classes from a target of 225 to 215 students. This will only marginally improve the classes' LSAT and GPA numbers, but it will allow for the entry of more transfer students after the first year whose numbers do not count in the U.S. News rankings.
This numbers game is also fueling the creation of a part-time program that could allow 25 or more students to pursue a law degree in four years of reduced-load study. Part-time students also do not count toward the rankings, and would provide the tuition money lost by the reduction in the full-time class.
Although this drop in rankings may affect the law school in the short term, Simson is confident that it will provide a needed push to make improvements to the program. "I feel very confident that we have an excellent school," said Simson. "We don't need to move up a lot to move up significantly."
